In Indonesia, start-up is one of the fastest-growing business model in the last four years. Unfortunately, many start-ups fail, even before they are known to the public. In the peak event of the “UI Investment and Start-Up Forum” which was held at the UI Convention Center and broadcast live on the Youtube channel, on Thursday (14/04), Universitas Indonesia (UI) held a talkshow entitled “Managing Start-Up”.
This event is a manifestation of UI’s commitment to support young start-ups and founders in welcoming the digital economy that is developing today. On this occasion, UI also presented the CEO and Co-Founder of Farmaklik, apt. Ridho Muhammad Sakti, S. Farm. Farmaklik is an online market platform for health products.
This platform offers a transaction process that is easy, fast, secure, transparent, and at a low price. Ridho stated, of the 30,000 pharmacies that are incorporated, 10% are corporate pharmacies, while the rest are Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). From this data, Farmaklik sees an opportunity for MSMEs to be widely developed. With technology that connects every element in the health product business, such as suppliers and retail (MSME pharmacies), Farmaklik meets consumer needs for thousands of health products. Starting from a concern over the pharmaceutical management system that was filled with administrative matters, Ridho decided to establish Farmaklik.
This establishment was also motivated by the large number of pharmacists—especially those based on MSMEs—who lacked business skills and had difficulty getting access to capital. In addition, drug manufacturers also experience difficulties in distributing their products, due to limited access to the market. Because of these factors, Farmaklik is here to support retail, including clinics and pharmacies, in order to maximize sales by connecting producers and pharmacies. The journey of establishing Farmaklik began in 2016. At that time, Ridho and his team released OBAT Apps, which are educational applications about pharmacy that connect mentors, pharmacists, and universities to improve the quality of education, especially for students in villages.
The founders who are UI alumni then released Pharmaklik Poin of Sale (POS) in 2018. Through the Pharmaklik POS application, pharmacists can maximize pharmacy operations. Unfortunately, more knowledge is needed when a pharmacist wants to open a pharmacy. Finally, after doing various observations and research, Ridho and his friends succeeded in creating Pharmaklik. To create a pharmaceutical business ecosystem, Ridho and his team succeeded in establishing Apotek Pharmacare. So far, they have built 6 pharmacies spread across various regions in Indonesia.
“The plan is that we and UI will collaborate to build 4 Pharma UI pharmacies in the Jakarta metropolitan area. UI and Farmaklik are also working together to create a telemedicine application, which is a technology for remote health services. In this collaboration, we will exchange data to improve the health service platform,” Ridho said in his presentation.
Although he did not receive the investment, Ridho admitted that Farmaklik managed to earn a turnover of Rp. 96 billion per year. Farmaklik succeeded in acquiring nearly 15,000 retail pharmacies and gaining 147,000 users, both pharmacists and students. With the Business to Business (B2B) concept, Farmaklik collaborates with 139 universities in Indonesia. Apart from UI, Farmaklik’s strategic partnerships include the Indonesian Pharmacists Association, the Indonesian Pharmacy Higher Education Association, the Indonesian Pharmacy Diploma Education Association, and news media outlet such as REPUBLIKA, Tribun Jabar, Antara News, and Liputan6.com.
The Farmaklik application can be accessed through the Play Store on the user’s Android smartphones. For pharmacies who are interested in becoming Farmaklik partners, they must have a valid pharmacy license, a license to practice from pharmacists in charge, and most importantly the spirit to move forward. With the ecosystem promoted by Farmaklik, this innovation is expected to be able to improve Indonesian public health services and be able to become a trigger for young people to continue to contribute to the country.
